Lyon deserves a rap as lean, mean Green machine revs up for Ashes
Nathan Lyon is looking good for the Ashes. Cam Green’s even better.
We continue to learn and grow. Nathan Lyon is wearing No.67 at the SCG when a young woman punches my arm and screams, “Six seven!” Yep, I say. Sixty-seven. What of it? She’s going bonkers. “Sixseven!” is her gleeful cry while Lyon spins his web. It’s one word, apparently. “Sixseven!” she shouts. “Sixseven! Sixseven! Sixseven!”
Am I the only person in existence who hasn’t known about sixseven until now? The nonsensical term is used by giggling young folks who love the fact it doesn’t mean anything, and therefore everything. Perhaps it comes from NBA star LaMelo Ball being 6’7’’; perhaps it comes from the rap song Doot Doot by Skrilla, who, of course, grew up on 67th Street in Philadelphia. Oh, my dear paws! Oh, my fur and whiskers! It sounds like something Lewis Carroll would have invented. As a writer, he’s so sixseven.
Lyon was terrific for NSW against Victoria on the second day of their Sheffield Shield match at the SCG. Out of 10, you’d given him the highest mark. A sixseven. He took 4-82 while putting 29.1 pre-Ashes overs into his legs, shoulder, wrist and spinning finger. His figures would have included more wickets, probably six or seven, without dropped catches, including Steve Smith’s grassing of a chance for the first time since he was about 12 years of age. Smith has always been sixseven as a slips fielder and Lyon nearly fainted when his skipper’s fingers turned to butter.
One of Australia’s primary advantages over England is having the vastly superior tweaker. Shoaib Bashir and Will Jacks do not hold a candle to Lyon. While monstrously green pitches may tempt Australia to play four specialist speedsters in the first Test, the suggestion is more bonkers than Doot Doot by Skrilla. Selections are a bit sixseven at the best of times but Lyon has to play all five Tests. If he isn’t required, the quicks will have already done their job.
Lyon was in command of his craft for the Blues. Flight, substantial turn, about 67 degrees, and the sturdy and confident aura of a worldly and wise 37-year-old veteran with 562 wickets from 139 Tests. He’s solid enough to be sent out to sea. Put it this way. If the English could pick Lyon, they would. He’s so brilliant he chose sixseven for his shirt before sixseven was even a thing.
Cam Green isn’t six-seven, merely six-six, and the crucial piece in the jigsaw puzzle is playing for Western Australia against Queensland at the WACA Ground. If he can bowl in the Ashes, he’ll likely bat at six, with Jake Weatherald opening and Marnus Labuschagne at three. If Green isn’t fit enough to bowl, he’ll be first drop, with Labuschagne opening, Beau Webster at six and Weatherald contemplating his navel.
Australia’s XI is at sixes and sevens until there’s clarity on Green’s fitness. So far, very bloody good. It takes one lively, venomous over in Perth to understand the eagerness for his bowling. He’s immediately quick, bouncy, threatening and nasty. He pounds Matt Renshaw on the thumb and keeps following through so far that he’s staring daggers from point-blank range.
His first spell was only four overs, netting 1-7, but it was shockingly impressive. You expected him to ease into his work. He went hammer and tong, dismissing Angus Lovell with a searing, leg-cutting delivery that collected the finest edge to gloveman Josh Inglis.
Labuschagne was knocked off his feet by a waist-high beam ball from the Green machine, who was operating at full intensity, grunting with effort, on a mission.
The unintentionally dangerous delivery to Labuschagne rattled Green, though. He coughed up a friendly half-volley then the widest of leg-side wides.
Regardless, first impressions were great. You’d give him a sixseven for effort. A sixseven for energy. A sixseven for aggression. A sixseven for not needing a fireman’s carry back to his mark. A sixseven for Ashes momentum.
Elsewhere, Beau Webster took 5-50 for Tasmania in Hobart, where Weatherald made 30 in his second turn at bat. Webster followed soon after for eight, mistiming to short mid-wicket.
In Sydney, Smith was in impeccable touch for the Blues. A class above Sheffield Shield while compiling fiveseven – 57 – in a side that crumbled for 128.
Smith treated Victoria’s attack, including Scott Boland, so famous for taking 6-7 in a Boxing Day Ashes Test, with disdain. Life’s three certainties are death, taxes and Boland cheaply dismissing Sam Konstas, which happened again, but Smith was in great nick. Doot doot.
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